Anatoly Malykhin thanks team for support against Arjan Bhullar: “I am grateful to each of you”

Newly crowned undisputed ONE heavyweight world champion Anatoly Malykhin expressed gratitude for his teammates following his impressive win at ONE Friday Fights 22.

After more than two years sitting on the sidelines, Arjan Bhullar returned to the ONE Championship ring for a long-awaited world title unification clash with Russian knockout artist Anatoly Malykhin inside the legendary Lumpinee Boxing Stadium. ‘Singh’ talked a big game heading into his title tilt with the man he called “one dimensional,” but as heavyweight boxing like Mike Tyson said, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

That’s exactly what happened as Anatoly Malykhin went to work from the get-go and delivered a dominant performance en route to a third-round TKO against Arjan Bhullar. In doing so, he captured the unified ONE heavyweight world championship.

Following the matchup, Malykhin visited a local hospital to have his leg checked out. While there, he took to Instagram to deliver a heartfelt message to his teammates and those that have supported him along the way:

“Go for it, love, appreciate your friends. Guys - everyone who came to see my fight today - wow, and so many stars, you know. I am grateful to each of you guys, I trained with many of you.”

With the book now officially closed on his rivalry with Arjan Bhullar, ‘Sladkiy’ will now turn his attention to making history once again by becoming the first-ever three-division world champion in mixed martial arts history.

To do that, he will need to go through reigning ONE middleweight world titleholder Reinier de Ridder. Malykhin hopes to take de Ridder’s last remaining piece of gold after stripping him of the ONE light heavyweight championship at ONE on Prime Video 5 last year.

If you missed any of the action, the ONE Friday Fights 22 replay can be watched anytime via ONE Championship’s YouTube channel.